With the rest of the money, he funded an expedition, hiring a large troop of mercenaries and equipping them with mighty black market artifacts to come rescue me in the Tower. By the time the previous emperor realized his true purpose, he was long gone.
He arrived in time to save my life. And together, we explored the Tower of Rebirth under the jeers of the two great powers' "elite."
Originally, we did very well. Obtaining many benefits. However, by a stroke of luck or misfortune, we stepped into the Infernal Cult Founder's resting place.
The Infernal Cult Founder was a Divine Ascension Rank expert. Just a step beneath G.o.dhood. Although his soul had been obliterated in his battle with the Celestial Founder, his corpse could endure an eternity.
A humongous corpse that overflowed with terrifying quant.i.ties of high-level Sage blood. That was my once in a lifetime opportunity. How could I hesitate? I dived in, triggering the a.s.sault of the dozens of concealed infernal souls guarding the corpse.
To save me, Olrich shouldered the brunt of their attack, absorbing the infernal souls in a desperate attempt to refine them. Giving me the opportunity I needed to collect a large quant.i.ty of Sage blood. As a paragon spirit, that blood was useless to him.
But where many others would have chosen to save their hide, he still stood by me. A pity that heaven doesn't reward the good-natured. Though he managed to refine the infernal souls, they left an indelible mark on him, twisting him beyond repair.
I even suspect that some still live in him.
From then on, insatiable greed and l.u.s.t for power drove his every step. I held the vain hope that the throne could satisfy his hunger, so I helped him seize it. I was terribly wrong.
It only made it worse."
Yvonne trembled, revealing a feeble side Konrad had yet to see.
"A century pa.s.sed before he revealed to me that from those souls, he obtained profound knowledge and a formidable cultivation method that made talent irrelevant.
Comprehending the first layer, his cultivation directly reached the peak of the Semi-Holy Rank with his complete sublimation in heartlessness."
Nine transformations in the Transcendent Rank. Nine sublimations in the Semi-Holy Rank.
In the Semi-Holy Rank, cultivators chose a path to become their guiding principle and sublimate themselves in it.
Konrad was well-aware of that.
"Comprehending the second layer, across the centuries, he refined the souls of a thousand newborns to establish his three Pure Selves and reach the True Origin Saint Rank.
